Washing-machine



OLIVER B. WIGHT, OF STURBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

WASHING-MACHINE.

Specication of Letters Patent No. 3,654, dated July 9, 184A.

To all Lu/wm, t may concern Be it known that I, OLIVER BUTLER VVIGHT, of Sturbridge, in the county of Vorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Vashing Clothes, which is described as follows, reference being had to the annexed drawings of the same, making part of this specification.

Figure l is a vertical longitudinal section. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the machine.

This machine consists of a quadrant rocking beater placed inside of a horizontal longitudinal vibrating box upon a cloth apron placed upon a series of transverse rollers arranged at the bottom of said boxsaid cloth apron being stretched horizontally and lengthwise and passed over and around the two end rollers of the series upon which the clothes to be washed are placed and over which the beater is rocked by moving the box longitudinally back and forth over parallel horizontal ways on a frame-the axle of said rocking beater being confined in oblong slots of posts let into the ways or frame so as to have a vertical movement therein, but prevented from moving horizontally* by which arrangement of parts the clothes are washed upon said flexible apron, and when cleansed are removed from said box by turning the beater upon its axle so as to bring it above the box and out of the waythe water and dirt being drawn from the box through an aperture in its bottom.

The frame of this machine, lettered A, is made of wood of suitable size and strength. The parallel ways B, B over which the wash box is moved back and forth by hand are arranged and secured at the top of this frame and connected by girts or otherwisethey are rabbeted o-n their upper inner corners in which the sides of the box (if extended below the bottom thereof) move; or in which rollers E turn-said rollers being let into pieces of timber fastened to the bottom of the box.

rlhe box C in which the clothes are washed, called the wash-box, is made of a rectangular form of suitable size, strength, and material for the purpose intended, made water tight by dovetailing or halving the ends into the sides which sides are extended to the bottom, to which, thick pieces of timber D are fastened and mortised to receive rollers E that turn on the ways. A. series of transverse parallel rollers F are arranged in this box near the bottom thereof turning on gudgeons in the sides thereof over which is stretched a piece o-f cloth G of a width equal to that of the box inside and as much longer as to admit of its being carried around the two end rollers and fastened. The said end rollers are made and arranged so as to be removable at pleasure for putting on and taking off the cloth. The box is perforated in the bottom with a round aperture for discharging the water, closed by a plug H.

The rocking beater I for pressing the clothes upon the flexible apron or cloth bottom of the box resembles a segment of a common steamboat or flutter wheel. It is composed of two parallel segment or quadrant heads or ends J J fastened to a transverse horizontal rock shaft K whose gudgeons turn in oblong slots in the tops of posts L let into the frame. In the inside of the aforesaid quadrant ends and around the curved portions thereof are made dovetailed grooves into which are inserted the beaters I which are plain rectangular pieces of wood or boards of the requisite length, breadth and thickness-inserted half their widt-h into said grooves and projecting the other half more or less beyond the peripheries of the heads or ends J. rllhese projecting portions of the beaters, as they rock to and fro upon the cloth bottom strike it nearly over the centers of the spaces between the rollers, which are arranged at a proper distance from each other, bearing down said exible apron or bottom with the clothes thereon into the spaces between the rollers below the beaters as the box is moved back and forth by hand at the same time causing the other port-ion of the cloth bottom between the beaters and end of the box to assume a horizontal posit-ion, and by this alternate change of position of the cloth bottom, arising from the horizontal movement of the wash-box beneath the rocking and rising and falling quadrant beater placed upon the clothes to be washed. The clothes are pressed or squeezed and turned upon said flexible cloth bottom until they are sufficiently cleansed. The clothes areafterward treated in the usual manner. The hot water and soap put into the box with the clothes are of the usual description and quantity. Should the beater require additional weight for Cleaning heavier clothes it .must be added. I J with the flexible bottom G-rollers The Weight w represents how it may be and Vibrating boX C arranged and operated 10 added. in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

The anti-friction rollers may be placed in 5 the Ways or in the box as preferred. GLIVER B' VVIGHT' j What I Claim as my invention and which Witnesses: I desire to secure by Letters Patent is- VM. P. ELLIOT,

The combina-tion of the rocking beater ALBERT E. JOHNSON. 

